In recent years, many allergic diseases such as atopic dermatitis, bronchial asthma, and allergic rhinitis have become a problem. The main reason for these allergic diseases is that many allergens such as allergens of house mites (Der1, Der2), particularly dust mites which are present in plenty in house dust, and allergens of Japanese cedar pollens (Crij1, Crij2) which are mainly raging in spring increase in a life space.
Particularly as for the allergens of dust mites, even if dust mites causing the allergens are destroyed, these dead mites supply furthermore allergic substances to a life space, and therefore it was difficult to resolve fundamentally allergic diseases resulting from the allergens of dust mites.
And, Crij1 which is an allergen of Japanese cedar pollens is glycoprotein having a molecular weight of about 40 kDa and Crij2 is glycoprotein having a molecular weight of about 37 kDa, and they are discerned as a xenobiotics to cause inflammation reaction when they adhere to nasal mucosa.
These allergens are apt to accumulate in decorative house materials such as a straw tatami mat, a floor (flooring) and a wallcovering, or bedclothes such a futon, a pillow, a blanket, a mattress, a bed mat and a sheet, and covers thereof; furniture made of cloth such as a sofa, a chair and a bed, which are made of cloth, and covers of furniture; filters of an air cleaner, an air conditioner and a vacuum cleaner; automobile implements such as a car sheet, a car mat and a child seat; toys such as a stuffed toy; and between fibers of fiber products such as a carpet, a curtain, clothes and a towel.
Particularly, because when patients suffering from allergic diseases are in contact with bedclothes in which allergens are accumulated for long time, their sleeps are interfered and their health is further damaged significantly at the occurrence of allergic symptoms, it is most desired to patients suffering from allergic diseases to suppress allergens.
In order to mitigate the symptoms of allergic diseases or prevent new sensitization, it is necessary to eliminate the allergens completely from a life space or to inactivate the allergens by modifying the allergens or the like.
As a method of eliminating the allergens from a life space among these countermeasures, a method of controlling the grain of a cloth of bedclothes cover to a certain size is disclosed in Japanese Kokai Publication Sho-62-213707 and a technology of preventing mites from penetrating into a futon by controlling a fixation method of futon's inner cotton in a cloth is disclosed in Japanese Kokoku Publication Hei-7-32735, and its products are actually commercialized. However, in these bedclothes, though the mites cannot pass through the bedclothes, a sufficient effect of suppressing an allergen could not be attained because sizes of the corpses and the egesta of mites which become allergens are one-tenth of that of mites or smaller and these allergens are pulverized by physical impact and become fine, and the penetration of these allergens cannot be protected. Much less, these bedclothes did not exert any effect on allergens not in bedclothes but in dust coming on from indoor and outdoor.
On the other hand, various methods of inactivating allergens are explored such that a method of using tannic acid as an inactivating agent for allergens is disclosed in Japanese Kokai Publication Sho-61-44821, but most of conventional methods of inactivating allergens are a method of inactivating allergens in an aqueous solution, for example, spraying a component suppressing an allergen. However, these methods were not only burdensome but also hard to process uniformly and had a problem that an area contaminated by allergens always adversely affects the human body before processing further.
Further, in Japanese Kokai Publication 2002-326944, a formulation which inactivates allergens in the air by including a hygroscopic composition such as alkaline earth salts in an allergen inactivating agent is disclosed, but there was a problem that when bedclothes were processed with this formulation, bedclothes became sticky because of the deliquescence of alkaline earth salt and the feeling of bedclothes was not adequate so that the formulation could not be used.